The transformation of the Supreme Court's agenda: from the New Deal to the Reagan administration

Abstract

This is an exploration of the institutional judicial activism of the US Supreme Court through the dramatic changes in its agenda, as it has evolved from 1933 to the present. Once dominated by economic issues, the Supreme Court's agenda is now populated largely by cases involving individual rights and liberties. This shift is hardly accidental, the author argues, and he offers quantitative as well as qualitative assessments of the means and motivations for change. More than 7500 cases serve as the basis of analysis, and the narrative is amplified by an explanation of the author's case taxonomy, a chronology of the Court justices, a list of cases cited and a digest of key cases.